Twenty-four Indian nationals who were granted work permits to film a music video in Ire land were being held in Mountjoy prison last night awaiting deportation after immigration authorities revoked their entry visas.
The group, part of a Bombay production company scheduled to record a "Bollywood" musical production at Ardmore Studios, Co Wicklow, was refused leave to enter the State by Department of Justice officials at Dublin Airport on Thursday night.
The Department was acting on a tip-off from authorities in India who said that members of the party planned to travel on illegally to Britain.
The Indians - 21 men and three women - were detained in Mountjoy Prison. They will be returned to India on the first available flight. A further 40 compatriots due to travel to Dublin from Paris were stopped at Charles de Gaulle airport on Thursday night, and will be flown to India as soon as possible.
The Department of Justice refused to comment on the matter but sources suggested that international criminals specialising in trafficking migrants might be involved.
Last July a group of Indians purportedly travelling to Iceland to make music videos for the same organisation absconded in London and remained in Britain illegally, according to the authorities in India. Only a few of them actually arrived in Iceland.
The Bombay studio secured more than 60 work permits from the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment last month. The Department agreed to issue the permits because the studio had a service agreement at the Ardmore studios. The Department of Justice granted entry visas as a matter of course.
The group was intercepted on Thursday night and informed their visas had been rescinded. They were taken to Mountjoy prison. They had no wish to remain in Ireland and were agreeable to going back to India as soon as possible, a Department of Justice source said last night.
The airline which brought them to Dublin is obliged under immigration law to return them to their country of origin. Efforts were under way last night to secure a flight as quickly as possible, the source added.